What Death Doula Work Teaches Me About Life
🎙️ This is Episode 21 of the Nervous System Care & Healing Podcast with Liz Zhou, a therapist specializing in neurodiversity, complex trauma, & psychedelic integration.
Death is a natural part of life… yet our death-phobic, grief-phobic society rarely acknowledges this fact.
We’ll eagerly plan for marriages, births, graduations, and other life milestones… but avoid discussing end of life. This is understandable, as confronting our mortality can feel scary & overwhelming.
Yet conversations about end of life can also be meaningful & life-affirming, ensuring that our wishes, needs, and values are honored till the end - and beyond. When we acknowledge the one certainty in life - that our days on earth are finite - we free ourselves to live more presently & authentically in the now.
In this episode, I share about my explorations of death work & end-of-life care - from one (mortal) human to another.
01:38 | What is a death doula?
04:51 | Exploring end-of-life care & post-death options that align with your values (ex: conventional burial, fire cremation, water cremation, green burial, natural organic reduction)
10:40 | Why we need to have conversations about end of life (even if it's uncomfortable)
13:56 | You’re a living legacy: how do you want to be remembered?
16:09 | End-of-life care is community care; death work belongs to all of us
May this episode remind you to live fully & to have important conversations with your people - sooner rather than later.
About the Author
Liz Zhou (she/her) is a neurodivergent therapist, coach, and speaker. She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults & couples heal their nervous systems and connect with their authentic selves, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, EMDR, IFS, psychedelic integration) that are quicker & more effective than traditional talk therapy. Liz offers Nervous System Healing Intensives online worldwide.
